Look, I like emojis. They’re fun 🥳, expressive đź’€, and sometimes even helpful. But let’s be real—we’ve taken this too far. Somewhere along the way, we started treating work chat like a social feed instead of, you know, actual work.
Case in point: Slack and Teams. These were supposed to fix email, remember? “Too many emails! Too much back-and-forth!” we all agreed. Great—so now I’ve got 30+ channels in Teams, a partner Slack, countless DMs and, oh yeah, my inbox is still a dumpster fire. At least with email, everything went to one damn place.
Now I’m expected to drop a party emoji every time someone does the bare minimum. You updated a doc? 🏆 You joined a meeting on time? 👏 You remembered to breathe today? 🔥 Why did we start handing out digital participation ribbons for basic competence?
We’ve replaced professionalism with performative availability. Everyone’s broadcasting their every move like they’re on a reality show. Meanwhile, I’m just trying to get work done without feeling like I have to narrate my lunch or timestamp my next bowel movement.
This post from Silverorange really raised my hackles by actually promoting the idea of using an emoji to say “I’m back” after a coffee break. Seriously? I didn’t walk into the office in the early 2000s and shout, “Hey everyone, just popped back from Starbucks!” I had a calendar. I managed my time like an adult. I was reachable. If it was urgent, people found me.
Worse still, Slack and Teams have cranked up the pace of work. Email gave us breathing room. You sent a message and maybe got a reply later that day. Now? Instant pings. Endless channels. Everyone expects that you’ve seen everything already and that you respond right away. You can’t even open a doc without a sidebar lighting up with comments and emojis before you’ve had your first coffee.
It’s stressful, and studies back it up:
- According to Harvard Business Review, collaborative work has ballooned over the last decade—up to 85% of the workweek is spent in meetings, calls, and messaging. That’s not efficiency; that’s chaos.
- Researchers at the University of North Carolina found that tech-overloaded workers are less productive. It’s not just annoying—it’s cognitive overload. We’re juggling so many inputs we can’t even think straight.
- And Slack? One report says that Slack users spent 10 hours per week in-app (and that report is from 2015; this has likely increased over the last decade). That’s a part-time job reacting to channel noise and emojis.
So no, Slack and Teams haven’t fixed email. They just turned up the volume.
We need to bring back some boundaries. Not every task needs applause. Not every absence needs a broadcast. Can we please act like professionals again—not high schoolers with unlimited data plans?